Challenges with Winter Groundwater Remediation
Challenges come in addition to dealing with typical obstacles of groundwater remediation, essentially adding another layer onto the already complex process. Groundwater cleanup doesn’t take a break when it’s cold.
Freezing temperatures
Freeze-Vulnerable - Water-based remediation systems. Ensure that insulation or heating is incorporated in to keep pump-and-treat equipment, observation/monitoring wells and surface pipework operational – ice formation can severely disrupt operations and damage the systems involved.
Treatment chemicals can also lose their effectiveness or even be rendered unusable when used in colder conditions, necessitating the need for heated storage buildings. For information on Groundwater Remediation, contact https://soilfix.co.uk/services/groundwater-remediation/
Reduced biological activity
Bioremediation uses microorganisms to consume the contaminants. The cold weather of the winter months causes them to become slow or even inactive, which means that it will spread less and at a slower pace.
Biological process projects may experience little benefit November through March and should factor this into total remediation timelines.
Ground conditions
The installation of new monitoring wells or treatment systems would be extremely difficult in frozen ground. The hard, frozen ground means the soil must be broken using specialist equipment which is costly in terms of both time and manpower.
Snow and ice block site access, therefore preventing timely maintenance and monitoring actions from taking place.
Monitoring complications
Groundwater sampling on a regular basis is necessary to monitor how well remediation works. Sites may be covered in winter weather, samples maybe delayed or compromised due to their fragility during transport.
To begin sampling frozen monitoring wells, the ice in them needs to be thawed bringing with it time and complexity into what needs to be done.
Mitigation strategies
With remediation contractors in the know plus years of winter prep practice, those professionals will have hit all these challenges before and planned for them.
This knowledge helps set realistic project timelines based on season. Although winter may hinder remediation progress, well-functioning planning and cold-weather protection allows for some projects to be able to continue throughout the year protecting groundwater quality no matter the season.
